Recently, information terminals equipped with cameras have become popular, and have also been employed as means for imaging, browsing and image communication.
For example, in the case of a cellular phone equipped with a camera, an image acquired by the camera is used in various ways, such as being transmitted as a file attached to email text, being used for real-time communication (a television telephone), or being printed by a user. The same uses may be made of an image received from a third party and of an image downloaded from a server.
Therefore, originally, in order to increase the usability, it is preferable that the image quality or the speed required for the processing, i.e., the amount of processing for an operation or the amount of processing memory, be changed in accordance with the use of a photographic image or a received image, as described above.
For example, as shown in FIG. 5, “processing speed has priority over image quality” when a photographic image is to be used for real-time communication. On the other hand, for example, when a photographic image is to be printed out, a case wherein “image quality takes priority over processing speed” is more meritorious for a user.